Archive for December, 2009

This is going to be a great year for the Big Sky basketball fan and a very rough year for Big Sky coaches. The men’s side of the conference is the strongest I have seen it in a very long time. Who ever finishes second or third may well have won the league in years past. For fans this will mean some very exiting basketball over the next 2 and half month. This will also make for some very frustrated coaches who have put together what they may have thought to be a pretty good team only to see it chewed up during the conference season. If you are a coach on the hot seat, it could be bad news. A team that might have finished 9-7 last year will be lucky to finish 5-11 this year.

First let’s look the preseason polls:

Coaches’ Poll

Media Poll

1

Weber State

1

Weber State

2

Montana

2

Montana

3

Idaho State

3

Portland State

4

Portland State

4

Idaho State

5

Montana State

5

Montana State

6

Northern Colorado

6

Northern Colorado

7

Northern Arizona

7

Northern Arizona

8

Eastern Washington

8

Eastern Washington

9

Sacramento State

9

Sacramento State

Here is where the RPI would rank the team as of 12-31-09

(and before checks it, their win/loss number do not add up)

RPI

Conf Rank

Team

Projected Record

73

1

Northern Colorado

13-3

86

2

Montana

12-4

120

3

Montana State

11-5

149

4

Weber State

10-6

153

5

Portland State

9-7

148

6

Northern Arizona

9-7

221

7

Idaho State

3-13

289

8

Sacramento State

2-14

293

9

Eastern Washington

1-15

Also note that Realtime RPI is projecting that Weber State, Idaho State and Northern Colorado are showing a great deal of improvement as of late. Montana State is a team that they think is showing some improvement while Sac. State and Northern Arizona are teams that seem to be going the other direction.

Mslacat’s Theorem #I

In conference coaches count less and player talent counts more:

Over the past 30 or so years I have always noticed that certain teams every year do not do as nearly well in conference play as they do in non-conference. This seems to affect a certain type of team more than any other. That type of team is a “system team”, meaning a team that relies running a particular offensive system to a tee to be successful. This could be the newest coaching trend or a gimmicky offence design to hide a team’s weakness. In the non-conference they seem to work much better than in conference for the simple reasons the teams are much less familiar with each other, in conference the coaches know each other, they know what the other coaches like to run and they have a game plan to beat that coach even before conference starts. By the time the second half of the conference comes around and the league coaches have seen all the players and new wrinkles the other coaches have in their system the league coaches really gets tunes in to each other. This is why some teams will also do much better in the first half of the season and then tank it the second half. Essentially you could also say that the coaches tend to cancel each other out and talent takes over.

Teams who have the talent in the non-conference have the same talent in the conference. Talent is the one thing that coaches can not affect once the season begins, you have what you have and in the end with the coaches matching each other in this chess match that is what rises to the surface.

It has been quite a while since I have done an Odds and Ends post but I have a handful of thing that are worth mentioning but maybe not in a full post by themselves.

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In the in case you missed it category Helena Capital’s Matt Miller committed to Boise State a couple day’s ago. Sorry nothing from me at the time but I had a few balls in the air, but this sounds like a great choice by Mr. Miller. As a matter of fact I think Arizona State and Stanford would also have been great choices as well. Here is a quote Miller gave to Rick Kimbrel of Blue-Turf.com (part of the Rivals.com network).

“When I went down to Boise State for my visit,” Miller said. “I just felt so comfortable and thinking about it I felt that at Boise I would be the most happy for the next couple of years of my life.

“Boise State is a great football team,” Miller said. “They are a top 10 football team year in and year out. That is very enticing to me.

“The school as well is on the rise academically,” Miller said. “I kind of want to get into wildlife biology and ultimately become a college coach so I felt at Boise State, I could accomplish all those goals.

This past weekend we opened up at Boise State, my Alma Mater, where they had an Alumni Reunion and recognized our 1993-94 Big Sky Champion Team who was also nationally ranked. What an amazing season that was, and what an fantastic experience to be a part of. Although our Bobcats didn't win that night, it was a nice distraction to have dinner after the g […]

I am talking to you Dan Muscatell. I am talking to all of you on twitter begging me for more blog. I know you missed me, little did I know that you were craving more blog. I put it on the to-do list and then moved it straight to the top.Montana Coaches Association - 2010 ClinicThis event gets better every year for me. It's not that the speakers are any […]

I’m back! Now that the season has started it’s time to fire TW Courtside back up for another season. Things look a whole lot different in the Big Sky this year, thanks to graduation. This will be an exciting year!This past week we finally got a chance to see all of the Big Sky teams in action. Albeit, it is always tough to gauge teams at this point because m […]

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